Schrodinger's Kittie

For those of you who have been around me in person any length of time, you know that I’ve been having issues with rising weight in the last year.  Since July of last year, I’ve gained significant weight.  I’m up from 140 (which was ok weight, but I’d have liked to have lost about 10 pounds) to 160-165.  This makes me a size 12 and not comfortable in my own skin.  I am particularly concerned that it might be my thyroid shutting down.  Thyroid issues are not uncommon in my family.

However, before I start to panic or get overly concerned, I figured I’d get serious about tracking calories for the first time in my life.  In pursuit of that, I found this awesome site called My Food Diary.   Why this particular site?  Well, the first thing that caught my eye was the large food database they have.  Much larger than most of the other sites I’ve come across.  Then, if they don’t have it listed, you can add it manually.  And the capper for me where food alone was concerned – I can enter my recipes manually, and they will keep it stored with all the nutritional information for me.  Each item in the recipe is most generally already in their database.

Then the thing that made me grin was the excercise lists.  They have anything and everything that can burn calories listed – well, a significant number anyway.  For pity’s sake, they even have shopping, grocery shopping, washing the car, washing the dog, sweeping the floor.  I’m not kidding.  It’s awesome.  So…I figure I will use this site for a month or two.  Use the calorie portion of it to keep an eye on what I’m actually eating and drinking.  And I mean a serious commitment to enter everything. This is a first for me and isn’t easy for me to do – I really hate feeling like I have to monitor every bite that goes into my mouth. But, if it’s what it takes for me to get a handle on this, then that’s what I’ll do, eh?

So I ordered a new book today. I probably shouldn’t have; but, with my points to redeem, I slashed the price down to a third the normal price and just couldn’t pass that up.

The book? The Thermodynamic Universe.

Sidharth’s new paradigm has been dubbed “fuzzy spacetime.” Its core principle is that the physical laws that govern the Universe were not set a priori at the moment of the Big Bang, but have arisen as a result of fluctuations occurring among particles and fields. For example, both the velocity of light and the value of the gravitational constant are not arbitrary numbers, but can be deduced from thermodynamic and stochastic considerations.

The first two chapters summarize the mainstream approach to physics and posit the viability of emergent laws. Subsequent chapters summarize Sidharth’s “universe of fluctuations,” and show how it can be applied to describe phenomena on both the largest and smallest scales of nature. Several surprising revelations follow. For example, dark energy, which came as a shock when it was discovered by mainstream cosmologists in 1998, is actually a logical consequence of fuzzy spacetime; the theory predicts that the Universe’s expansion will be accelerating via a small cosmological constant. Additionally, a series of so-called “large number coincidences”—links between seemingly unrelated physical values—can be satisfactorily explained by Sidharth’s framework.

I have two other books that I’m looking forward to getting at some point, too. But, with finances how they are, I’m having to wait until I can get killer deals on them as well. The two books? The Eclectic Sole and New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

So it’s been a while since I mentioned the baby blanket that I’m working on. Since I’m creating this pattern on the fly (I am taking notes, and will be begging for test knitters soon) I keep wondering how it’s going to turn out. I’m probably weird in that I write the pattern first, then follow it – making notes and changes as necessary along the way.

So far – I’m really enjoying how it’s turning out.

Here’s a close up of the latest stitch being used in the pattern. I’m not positive it will be the last stitch used. I do have a lot of blanket left to knit still, so things may change. I really like this current stitch I’m doing. It’s a fairly time consuming stitch; but, I love the results. This stitch I actually came across in the Wrap-Me-Up-Shawl and modified it so it would work in the round and decrease appropriately. Now that shawl is definitely a worthy knit. I’ve seen a few of them completed and hope to be able to make one one of these days. I just need to find an affordable way of making it.